Build The Ultimate Mac Entertainment Center

Add a TV Tuner

A TV tuner can turn your Mac mini into a digital video recorder. This hardware connects to an antenna to receive TV channels over the air, while software enables the TiVo-like DVR features: pausing and rewinding live shows, fast-forwarding buffered programs, and more.

To get the most out of these features, a TV tuner carries a bigger footprint than the USB port it occupies. You’ll have to leave adequate hard disk space, plus your Mac mini will have to be left on any time it needs to record.

It's small and sleek, with big functionality.

Over-the-air digital content starts at a moderate resolution and scales up to huge sizes. Because your content will likely be encoded at one of three standards—480p, 720p, or 1080i—the amount of space it takes will vary. In general, figure that an hour of recorded content will fill about 8GB for high quality. But if you get good enough reception, the tuner could pay off. You’ll be able to capture HD shows for free at a quality equal or greater to what you can buy from the iTunes Store.

So, what tuner package should you buy? We like the combination of the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus hardware ($199.95, www.elgato.com) plus EyeTV 3 software, but you can substitute your own hardware or software if desired. With the EyeTV, the USB-connected box passes the live TV stream to the software. It even wakes up a sleeping Mac to record scheduled shows, so you don’t need to leave the computer on all the time.

Survey says: It's just like watching a regular TV.

To get started with the EyeTV, you’ll just install the software and hardware. A free subscription to an online show guide automatically propagates your channel roster, just like with cable TV. The mouse and arrow keys drive basic TV control, and if you run it in full screen, you won’t see any significant difference from the old cable service.

With any tuner, buy an antenna that’s designed for digital TV (you can buy one from Amazon or Monoprice for less than $25). We’ve found that DTV reception has improved over its first few years too. Unlike fuzzy analog TV, if you get a sufficient DTV signal, it’ll look just as it should: You’ll either get a channel or you won’t.

Control with Remotes

We wouldn’t consider subbing a Mac mini for our cable service without an entertainment center–savvy keyboard and mouse. But remotes are essential too; they just feel right. We keep the keyboard and mouse around for certain functionality, like typing in Web addresses, but several remote-style controllers are ideal controllers for all of your media-center activities.

The Keyspan was built to control iTunes remotely.

Between the TV, audio receiver, and Apple TV, you can replace three remotes with a universal device. We like Logitech’s Harmony line because of its easy setup and ability for deep customization. It even includes the Apple TV commands in its database. Check out the Harmony One ($250, www.logitech.com) as a baseline; you could go less or more expensive and still buy the same general functionality.

The Harmony will include macro programs to turn on the TV, receiver, and Apple TV all with one button. Then you can even use it instead of Apple’s bundled remote. The process is nearly the same with a Mac mini, but you’ll have to add an IR port since it doesn’t include one. The Keyspan Remote Control for iTunes ($46, www.tripplite.com) is a solid IR port option. You’ll first set up the Keyspan remote, then program the Harmony to replace that controller.

The Harmony One is all about, well, digital harmony.

Your iPhone or iPod touch will also make a great Apple TV or Mac mini remote, and they don’t require adding other hardware; you’ll just need to download the right app. Apple’s Remote app does a great job, since you can swipe through an iTunes library and even type letters from its pop-up keyboard. Get it free from the App Store.

For the Mac mini, also consider software-based controllers. We like the VNC-style LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99, secure.logmein.com/welcome/iphone/Default.asp), because you can see and control the entire Mac from your iPhone. This app is handy when you have the TV off but still want to start music playing. RPA Technology AirMouse (www.mobileairmouse.com) is another great choice ($5.99 in the App Store; the companion Mac app is free). This app turns your iPhone into a mouse and keyboard for your Mac.

Can Macs and Blu-Ray Play Nice?

Mac fans have been waiting on built-in Blu-ray drives for a while now. Rampant speculation that it was on the horizon was pretty much obliterated when Steve Jobs described Blu-ray as “a bag of hurt” at a MacBook launch in October 2008. Clearly, with the iPhone’s App store, Apple TV, and the iTunes Store, Cupertino is embracing downloadable content and trying to push Apple users away from physical media. Despite being an early supporter of the Blu-ray format, Apple doesn’t seem terribly interested in supporting it—much less building Blu-ray drives into their products. But just because Apple isn’t building in Blu-ray drives doesn’t mean your Mac is left in the dust by the new format. Keep reading for the answers to key questions you might have about Blu-ray and your Mac.

Does the Mac support Blu-ray? It depends on what you mean by “support.” If you’re trying to burn a Blu-ray disc, you’ll need to buy a Blu-ray drive from a third party, and there are internal or external models available. You can use your Blu-ray drive to burn data discs, if you’re running OS 10.5.2 or later. This is awesome for physical backups of music, media, or photos on 1 or 2 discs, rather than a pile of DVDs. But be aware that Blu-ray blanks run about $20 to $40 a pop, depending on capacity.

You can also use a third-party Blu-ray drive to author discs for playback on standalone Blu-ray players—including the PS3—using Adobe CS4 or Toast 10 Titanium. Unfortunately, there’s no support for Blu-ray authoring baked into Apple’s iLife apps…at least not yet.

What about watching movies? You can watch a Blu-ray movie on your Mac—if you’re willing to suffer the indignity of having to dual-boot into Windows XP or Vista. Unfortunately, OS X doesn’t natively support Blu-ray playback. Is it really just a “bag of hurt” that Apple is avoiding until licensing issues settle down? Or is Apple dragging its feet until the iTunes Store can offer 1080p downloads that will be able to directly compete with physical Blu-ray media? We’re guessing it’s a little of both, though Apple did not return our phone calls asking for a comment on the issue. And licensing for Blu-ray hardware and software is supposed to be getting a lot simpler and cheaper, so hopefully Apple will get onboard soon.

Should You Buy in Now? If you need to author video onto Blu-ray, you don’t have much choice. But for most users, the costs are too high to make it a practical data medium, and without native support for Blu-ray playback, we have a hard time getting onboard.—Ray Aguilera

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November 10, 2009 at 8:56pm

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I have done exhaustive searches on the internet and Apple support and they all tell me the same thing. iTunes does NOT support 5.1 sound on regular Macs. ONLY on the Apple TV. In your article you say that 5.1 is possible with the Mac Mini, did you actually prove that? I am using a 2Ghz Macbook, with Snow leopard and iTunes 9, and a toslink adapter to fiber optic going into my Sony receiver. I have several tv shows and movies in iTunes that refuse to work in surround sound, even when I change the sound output from stereo to surround. Playing DVD's works just fine with surround sound, however none of my iTunes content works. Have you found a way to make this work on your MacMini, since you said it would in the article? If so, lots of people on the internet are looking for that solution.

I have done exhaustive searches on the internet and Apple support and they all tell me the same thing. iTunes does NOT support 5.1 sound on regular Macs. ONLY on the Apple TV. In your article you say that 5.1 is possible with the Mac Mini, did you actually prove that? I am using a 2Ghz Macbook, with Snow leopard and iTunes 9, and a toslink adapter to fiber optic going into my Sony receiver. I have several tv shows and movies in iTunes that refuse to work in surround sound, even when I change the sound output from stereo to surround. Playing DVD's works just fine with surround sound, however none of my iTunes content works. Have you found a way to make this work on your MacMini, since you said it would in the article? If so, lots of people on the internet are looking for that solution.

While I didn't follow this article to the letter, I must say, it did inspire me to pull out an older 13" Intel MacBook, connect it to my 42" LCD and do some testing. Between Hulu subscriptions, iTunes, NetFlix, and a great program called Remote Buddy by iospirit.com, I'm giving it through this weekend, then calling the cable company on Monday to come pick up my cable box. I'm estimating since I'm using existing hardware, I'll save about $1000 this year. Thanks for a great article.